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Edinburgh Napier University has gained GCHQ certification for MSc in Advanced Security and Digital Forensics

01/08/2014

Introduction

Edinburgh Napier University gains GCHQ certification for MSc in Advanced Security and Digital Forensics. Details from SC Computing are here:

GCHQ certifies six MSc cyber security degrees

Francis Maude, Minister for
the Cabinet Office, announced today that six Master's degree courses in
cyber security are to be certified by GCHQ.

Earlier this year UK universities were invited to
submit their Cyber Security Master's degrees for certification against
GCHQ's criteria, with the six successful Master's degrees judged to
provide well-defined and appropriate content for a broad foundation in
Cyber Security, delivered to the highest standard.

GCHQ came up with the criteria by working with Professor Fred Piper,
the founding director of The Information Security Group at Royal
Holloway, University of London – the first to offer cyber-security
Master's degree in the UK 24 years ago. Professor Steven Furnell, of
Plymouth University, also helped GCHQ to develop assessment criteria for
the Master's degrees.

Full certification is being offered to Master's degrees currently
running whose students completed their degree in academic year 2012 to
2013; provisional certification is offered for those Master's degrees
which started academic year 2013, or are due to start in Autumn 2014.

Later this year Master's certification will be extended to specialist degrees in areas such as digital forensics.

A spokesperson for GCHQ told SCMagazineUK, "The certification places
no restrictions on nationality requirements. The entrance requirements
will remain in the control of the universities themselves and be
unaffected by the new certification."

In a statement to press, Nigel Smart, professor of cryptology,
University of Bristol said: “For the first time, UK universities which
become certified will have a means to promote the quality of the cyber
security they teach. Over the next few years, as GCHQ certification is
applied to more specialised areas of cyber security, I expect the number
of UK universities achieving certification of their Master's degrees to
increase.”

There are around 90 cyber-security related university courses in the UK, but the quality had previously been described as variable.

Consequently there has been a positive response among prospective
employers with Mark Hughes, President of BT Security, saying: “The fact
that GCHQ recognises these courses as high calibre gives us, at BT, the
confidence that those graduating with a Master's from one of these
universities will have the sound knowledge base in cyber security that
we would be looking for.” GCHQ has also confirmed that it intends to
send its own employees on these courses.

The National Cyber Security Strategy recognises education as key to
the development of Cyber Security skills and GCHQ is developing a
programme to identify and recognise Academic Centres of Excellence in
Cyber Security Education (ACEs-CSE),with the first applications from
universities to be recognised being judged in late 2015.

Only universities whose Master's degrees have been GCHQ-certified are
expected to be eligible to apply for ACE-CSE recognition. Chris Ensor,
deputy director for the National Technical Authority for Information
Assurance at GCHQ notes that: “Recognition of these degrees is an
important first step towards recognising Academic Centres of Excellence
in Cyber Security Education (ACEs-CSE).”

Electronic information now plays a vital role in almost every aspect of our daily lives. So the need for a secure and trustworthy online infrastructure is more important than ever. without it, not only the growth of the internet but our personal interactions and the economy itself could be at risk.